December 14, 2010

Sacred & Herbal Healing Beers Book

Our Editor-in-Chief is continuing on his DiY kick, and he just picked up a book called Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation. Most of the book is just as new agey as you might expect, but there are some hidden gems in there we really want to try to make. From discussions of historical beer ingredients and the history of brewing to recipes for all kinds of meads and beers, this book has plenty of information to feed your inner beer nerd.

One chapter that might be especially interesting to our readers is the one entitled "Psychotropic and Highly Inebriating Beers." In it you will find recipes for ales containing everything from wormwood to rosemary to sage to something called "gruit." One thing we found interesting about this book is that many of the recipes will send you to your grocery store (or more likely health food store) rather than your local brew shop.

On top of everything else, this book posits that beer can actually be healing and sacred, rather than just a social lubricant and sorrow-drowner, as our society often treats it. Kickass!